Lawrence Guyot

Born: Jul 17, 1939

Death: Nov 23, 2012

Birthplace: Pass Christian

Nationality: United States

Lawrence Guyot

Date of Birth : Jul 17, 1939

Date of Death : Nov 23, 2012

Birth Place : Pass Christian

Lawrence Guyot Jr. was an American civil rights activist who was the director of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party in 1964.
Guyot, a native of Pass Christian, Mississippi joined the Freedom Movement in Mississippi in 1961, when he was a student at Tougaloo College in Mississippi. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry in 1963. Guyot also directed the SNCC-CORE project in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and later became director of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party via the Freedom Ballot of 80,000 participants and the Summer Project of 1964. The major accomplishment of SNCC/MFDP was to establish a close bond with the United States Department of Justice. In 1966, Guyot ran for Congress as an anti-war candidate. Guyot was severely beaten many times, including while at the Mississippi State Penitentiary known as Parchman Farm, in the early 1960s stating of his testicles being burned with sticks by police officers. Guyot helped lay the groundwork for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He received a degree in law in 1971 from Rutgers University, and then moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked for the election of Marion Barry as mayor in 1978.